Posted on 11/26/2023 2:34:23 PM PST by nickcarraway
A tech conference dedicated to helping women climb the tech career ladder has derailed into chaos after it was ‘overrun’ by men.
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is held in Orlando, Florida every year and is among the most lucrative job finding conventions for young women in tech.
But this year’s summit was flooded by men supposedly claiming to be non-binary.
Firms including Amazon, Apple and Google were in attendance at the event – but it’s feared the event’s choice to allow non-binary people to attend led men to take advantage of the system.
Attendees shared videos on TikTok and other social media platforms criticising the men who attended the event, with some suggesting they pushed into queues and shoved other guests.
This was acknowledged by Cullen White, the Chief Impact Officer of AnitaB.org, which hosts the conference, who said in his closing speech: ‘Simply put, some of you lied about your gender identity when you registered – as evidenced by the stacks and stacks of resumes you’re passing out.
‘You did so because you thought you could come here and take space to get a job.
‘This is supposed to be a joyous event that centers around you. Yesterday, it became clear that there are a far greater number of cisgender men attending.
‘We need male allies, we need men who want to celebrate women, want to work with and for women.
‘Unfortunately some of you took discounted academic tickets from women who need them, some of you are taking interview slots right now… from women who need them.
‘Some of you are stood in line talking to recruiters instead of letting women speak. All of those are limited resources to which you have no right.
‘So let me be perfectly clear: stop right now. Stop.’
Mamantha J, an attendee who condemned the event on LinkedIn, said she was ‘really looking forward’ to the forum before realizing it was not what she expected.
She said: ‘As a woman who has experienced patriarchic dominance in the tech industry, I hoped the convention would provide a fair chance for me to connect with potential employers.’
Alongside complaints about long lines and exhausted recruiters, she said she witnessed ‘a significant number of cis men allies taking opportunities meant for women and non-binary, a concerning trend that seemed unaddressed by the event organisers.’
‘It saddens me the see all those cis men attending #GHC23 and misrepresenting their gender,’ added Anchal Katyalm, a software development manager at Amazon who also hit out at the gatecrashers on Linkedin.
‘We need male allies. We need men who want to celebrate women, who want to work with, and for women,’ she added.
‘For all the women & nonbinary people attending, hold your ground & believe in yourself.’
Another frustrated female jobseeker said on TikTok that she was in line to network with a recruiter when several men cut in front of her in the queue.
Women in Tech conference hijacked by men claiming to be non-binary - Grace Hopper Celebration There have been a number of complaints from attendees (Picture: X/@ayesha_nabiha) Another participant, Lauren Shaefer, said she was a big fan of the conference ever since she landed an internship there in 2007, until this year where her love of the event was dashed.
She said: ‘I once again travelled to the celebration to give a talk, but I didn’t leave feeling refreshed and energized.
‘The opening and closing talks from the main stage were excellent, but everything in between felt disheartening.’
She added that she even spoke with a security guard who ‘said they kicked out men who were pushing and shoving’, adding that ‘the career fair was overrun with men’.
Isn’t this old news from a couple months ago? Anyway, the whole event was sexist to begin with. Imagine if they had a men only event.
I don’t purport to know nor care what the new sex-confused vocabulary means.
Girls, babes, you will NEVER keep us men out unless you STEP UP and tell these beasts to F-Off, as we guys are NOT going to get involved - you wanted some ‘safe female spaces’, now you need to defend them.
The LGBTQ movement is starting to implode.
Must be what it was like in the city of Sodom during its final days.
Half of our programmers are women
There were a couple of posts in early October when this happened. I thought it was pretty funny. Just playing by the new rules; if pretending to be a particular sex makes it so, then OK, that’s what these guys did.
Not sure this really happened; sounds like something from the Bee.
Where? Chinese, Russian, or Indian?
Mostly Appalachian women.
Really? What kind of programming?
Muslim females don’t give a rip about careers, however, they reproduce like crazy. Perhaps our priorities of self are out of whack in terms of modern day worship of ourselves/leisure in exchange of providing a robust future of generations to come.
Males also need to be taught the value of family and raising kids. Corporate and government leaders need to be aware of the right way of stewardship in terms of paving an economic future. Gutting the stakeholders/local community in favor of shareholders value/debt policies by increasing productivity/profit margins over wages theoufh cheap labor is basically treason. Stock market and real estate originally was not meant to be a juvenile gambling hall of quick profits/short selling/flipping properties at a high rate . Whole society is out of whack.
The fertility rate in highly Muslim countries has been going down sharply?
You sound kind of feminist.
LOL!
it became clear that there are a far greater number of cisgender men attending.
what is cisgender?
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